The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Prairie Dogs as Colors on a Map

The Q is kinda resigned to the fact that there's nothing to not-much that can be done at this point. It's become a spectator sport. The number of market rate units coming on line is absolutely staggering, particularly given the neighborhod the Q moved to a dozen years ago. At that time, 626 was a parking lot. 123 on the Park was a shuttered old Hospital covered in graffiti. Some blocks, like mine, looked a lot nicer than now, before the sell-off and vacant lots. With the tear-downs you have to root for something, anything, taking the place of garbage strewn "camping" sites. But whatevs. Development happens on someone else's time, unless you do something about it like, I dunno, plan.

Checking in with Jacob's development map for the first time in a bit, it's helpful to remember that in 2003, NONE of these projects were happening. None, at least that I recall. At the time there was TALK of a building boom, but it was just rumors. K-dog, the ol' beloved coffee shoppe opened on Lincoln, and suddenly there was talk of a neighborhood sea-change. A group formed to encourage businesses to update and sell to the gentrifiers, though of course, it was not put in those terms. It seems quaint now, And now will seem quaint in a few short months, quainter still by 2020. There is no turning back; the time for planning is, I'm afraid, quite over.